Aggregation and viewing of health records received from multiple sources

ABSTRACT

A system and method is described that automatically collects health information from multiple health data provider sources, combines it into a database, then provides a view of the information on a body map. The body map can be a drawing, photograph, or other visual model, and can be changed over time as the patient advances in age. While the image may change over time, the system continues to plot the information in the correct body location.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to aggregating, viewing, and distributingpatient health records from multiple sources. Specifically, the presentinvention relates to aggregating health records about a patient fromvarious sources and then presenting them in an organized fashion on agraphical user interface.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of, and claims the benefit ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/905,821, filed Feb. 26, 2018, whichfurther claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No.62/463,710, filed Feb. 26, 2017. Both identified applications are herebyincorporated by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Providers maintain records of patients in computer systems (electronicmedical records-EMR systems) or on paper. The typical person in the UShas 5 to 10 healthcare providers. A person will then have health recordsspread across 5-10 different systems. This severely limits the patient'sability to have a complete view and understanding of their healthcondition. A patient with full access to their health information has ahigher likelihood of successful health outcomes.

Lack of control over health information creates inertia in healthcaredelivery from the patient's and provider's perspective. Patients feeltied into current providers, making it seem infeasible to find the bestvalued/treatment provider at any given time. When changing providers,the new provider ideally needs to access the patient's records beforeproviding adequate treatment. The result is that healthcare capacity isnot efficiently used to the detriment of both patients and providers.

Thus, what is needed is systems and methods for patients to take controlof and manage their health records to overcome the above mentioneddeficiencies.

SUMMARY

The present invention comprises a system and method to configure asystem to automatically collect health records from multiple providers,collect the data, then normalize the data into a common format forpresentation, analysis, predictive diagnosis, and other processes, thenstore the data for long term (life long) use, avoiding the reliance onindividual providers to store data (as these change from time to time,causing permanent loss of information).

The combined set of records are projected onto several views to aid inrapid viewing and understanding of a user's health. The views areintended for both patient and provider understanding of health historyand current conditions to increase efficiency in health care delivery.Views allow filtering of data to enable the user to see information ofinterest. Dimensions of filtering include medical areas (orthopedics,dermatology, internal medicine, etc.), status of the condition (new,ongoing/chronic, recovered/corrected, etc.), time range, and others.

A system of one or more computers can be configured to performparticular operations or actions by virtue of having software, firmware,hardware, or a combination of them installed on the system that inoperation causes or cause the system to perform the actions. One or morecomputer programs can be configured to perform particular operations oractions by virtue of including instructions that, when executed by dataprocessing apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform the actions. Onegeneral aspect includes a system configured to connect to at least onehealthcare data provider; submit information related to a user to the atleast one healthcare data provider, the information includingidentification and/or authorization credentials related to the user;retrieve a healthcare dataset related to the user, where the healthcaredataset includes a set of medical information related to the user;determine a corresponding location on a canonical body map related toeach medical information in the set of medical information; associatethe corresponding location and each respective medical information; andprovide a view of the canonical body map to the user, on a graphicaluser interface, where the canonical body map provides markings at eachlocation related to each respective medical information based on theassociating. The system can also be configured to displaying medicalinformation related to a marking user on the canonical body map throughthe graphical user interface. Other embodiments of this aspect includecorresponding computer systems, apparatus, and computer programsrecorded on one or more computer storage devices, each configured toperform the actions of the methods.

Implementations may include one or more of the following features. Inone embodiment, the canonical body map can be replaced with an alternaterendition, such as a photographic image of the user's body. In yetanother embodiment, submitted information related of the user to the atleast one healthcare data provider includes transmitting an attributeassociated with a script, where the script is configured to connect to adatabase associated with the healthcare data provider to retrieve thehealthcare dataset related to the user. In one embodiment, a list oflocations is preconfigured to correspond to each location on thecanonical body map. In one embodiment, retrieving the healthcare datasetincludes navigating through at least one web page configured in awebsite of the at least one healthcare data provider. In one embodiment,retrieving the healthcare dataset includes invoking an appropriate linkor command to download a health data set from the website. In oneembodiment, the credentials are preconfigured by a user and stored inthe storage media for each health data provider. In another embodiment,a trust relationship with the health data provider is pre-established,and a secure connection is used whereby user identity information ispassed to the health data provider, and the health data provider returnsthe healthcare dataset related to the user. Yet, in one embodiment, themedical information includes at least one of a health condition,procedure, or laboratory results related to the user. Implementations ofthe described techniques may include hardware, a method or process, orcomputer software on a computer-accessible medium.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present invention and itsfeatures and advantages, reference is now made to the followingdescription, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, inwhich:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary system environment wherein the systemfor integrating and distributing health records operates, according toone aspect of the invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary health information management system,according to one aspect of the invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a database table named “user” to store informationfor the one or more instances of a user of the system, according to oneaspect of the invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates a database table named ′“accountManager” to store arelationship between users such that one user is given permission toview health information of another as in the case of a care giverproviding care to a child or elderly parent, according to one aspect ofthe invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a database table named “provider” to storeinformation about health record provider systems that contribute healthrecords to a user's overall health information, according to one aspectof the invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates a database table named “fetchJob” to storeinformation about which health data provider system to connect to, alongwith credential information (user name and password, for example),according to one aspect of the invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates a database table named “record” to store informationabout a health problem and its location on a visual body map, accordingto one aspect of the invention.

FIG. 8 illustrates a computer system, an instance of which is used foreach system as described in the following sections, according to oneaspect of the invention.

FIG. 9 is a picture of a computer screen rendered, according to oneaspect of the invention.

FIG. 10 is a second picture of a computer screen rendered by anembodiment of the current invention, showing a realistic photograph of auser with superimposed health information, according to one aspect ofthe invention.

FIG. 11A illustrates computer instructions to retrieve healthinformation from a health data provider, according to one aspect of theinvention.

FIG. 11B is a flowchart based on the code illustrated in FIG. 11A,according to one aspect of the invention.

FIG. 12 illustrates a reference table where key words relating to thehuman body are translated to coordinates on a canonical body map,according to one aspect of the invention.

FIG. 13 illustrates the operations to perform the tasks to aggregatehealth records about a patient from various sources and then presentingthem, according to one aspect of the invention.

FIG. 14 illustrates a system configured to aggregate and view healthrecords received from multiple sources, according to one aspect of theinvention.

FIG. 15 indicates how one or more polygon regions are defined, allowingthe user to select a region and then supply pertinent information suchas a pain level, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16 indicates a translated region, according to one embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating a data processing system such asa computing system which may be used with one embodiment of theinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments and aspects of the inventions will be described withreference to details discussed below, and the accompanying drawings willillustrate the various embodiments. The following description anddrawings are illustrative of the invention and are not to be construedas limiting the invention. Numerous specific details are described toprovide a thorough understanding of various embodiments of the presentinvention. However, in certain instances, well-known or conventionaldetails are not described in order to provide a concise discussion ofembodiments of the present inventions.

Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” or“another embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic described in conjunction with the embodiment can beincluded in at least one embodiment of the invention. The appearances ofthe phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification donot necessarily all refer to the same embodiment. The processes depictedin the figures that follow are performed by processing logic thatcomprises hardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software,or a combination of both. Although the processes are described below interms of some sequential operations, it should be appreciated that someof the operations described can be performed in a different order.Moreover, some operations can be performed in parallel rather thansequentially.

A table as referred to herein, means a data structure that can store alogical table. Therefore, a table, as referred to herein can be onedatabase table, a series of tables, text files, binary files, or anyother structure that can store and associate information across one ormore non-transitory computer readable medium(s). Accordingly, thefollowing detailed description should not be limited to the disclosedembodiments and examples. Instead, the proper scope is defined by theappended claims.

The present disclosure enables accessing health records from manysources in order to provide benefits to the patient, family, providers,and caregivers. FIG. 1 shows an environment of systems 100, connected bya network 160, whereby systems can communicate with one another in asecure manner to allow health records to be accessed. The environmentmay comprise a network 160, an application device 110 which is a devicethat can interact with a human user 300, a system which manageselectronic health records with a means to distribute information, forexample health record provider A 140 and health record provider B 150, ahealth device A 120, health device B 130, a health informationmanagement system 170, a health service A 180, a health service B 190, ahealth data consumer A 200, and a health data consumer B 210.

In an exemplary environment of systems 100, in which embodimentsconsistent with the present disclosure may be practiced and implemented,the systems are able to communicate securely with one another, in amanner reflecting the security policies of each system. For example, thesystem 170 may be configured to receive data over an electronic network160 (e.g., the Internet), from health record provider A 140, analyze thedata, incorporate the data into a database, then transmit a merged orcombined data set from the database to another system, such asapplication device 110, which may in turn display the information to auser 300.

The following paragraphs describe the characteristics of example systemsin the environment of systems 100 connected by a network 160 as shown inFIG. 1 .

Application device 110 is a device such as a mobile phone or internetbrowser, which is capable of showing the health information transferredto it from the health information management system 170.

Health device A 120 and health device B 130 are health devices that canperform a health monitoring function such as measuring blood pressure,heart rate, or weight, and transmit that data over the network 160 tothe health information management system 170.

Health record provider A 140 and health record provider B 150 areexamples of systems that store health records associated with patientsand make those records, or portions thereof, available to patients ortheir representatives through various technical means. An example ofthis type of system is an electronic health record (EHR) system in useby a health provider where a user 300 receives care, and providers enterinformation about the user 300. An EHR may make the informationavailable via a patient portal, where a user 300 can log in via anapplication device 110 and network 160, navigate to the appropriatepage, and download the records in a predefined format. An EHR mayalternatively make the data available through an application programminginterface (API) using predefined interface mechanisms and formats.

A health service A 180 and health service B 190 are examples of systemsthat provide a service on behalf of the user 300 by examining the datatransferred by the health information management system 170 on behalf ofthe user 300, performing some function such as a medical diagnosis, thenreturning the result to the health information management system 170 forlater use of the user 300.

A health data consumer A 200 and health data consumer B 210 are examplesof systems representing organizations that are interested in receivingand processing health data for their own purposes, for example a medicalresearch organization or a population health organization. The healthinformation management system 170 is capable of sending healthinformation to these systems upon authorization by the user 300.

The health information management system 170 is a system that manageshealth information on behalf of a user 300. It collects information fromother systems such as application device 110, health record provider A140, health record provider B 150, health device A 120, health device B130, health service A 180, and health service B 190, where the data ismanipulated and stored for later use.

A user 300 of application device 110 may be a patient, or may be acaregiver such as a parent in the context of caring for her child. Auser 300 could be both a patient and caregiver, in which case it isbeneficial for health information to be accessible for both the patientand individuals for which the user provides care. The present disclosureallows the user to view and manage her own health information accessedfrom one or more sources, and to view and manage health information forone or more patients for which she is given authorization. The user canview the health information, and control the information which flows topresentation to patients, family, and caregivers, and how the newlycombined data is useful for advanced purposes benefiting the patient andthe broader healthcare industry.

All data is managed in a highly secure manner compliant with securitystandards such as NIST 800-53 and HIPAA compliant technology guidelines.Data is encrypted both at rest in the health information managementsystem 170 and while in transit across the network 160.

Each system within the environment 100 is capable of managing data onbehalf of a particular user 300, in a manner that ensures that data isappropriately associated with a specific user, so that data associatedwith a specific user is not unintentionally mixed together with dataassociated with other users.

The present disclosure describes how a user 300 can subscribe to aservice and provide instructions for collecting health information frommultiple sources, and display the information on a single device. FIG. 2illustrates an exemplary set of components which provide the capabilityfor health information management system 170. A user subscriptionmanager 500 enables a user 300 to subscribe to the services for thehealth information management system 170. In one embodiment of thedisclosure, when a user 300 wishes to subscribe, the user subscriptionmanager 500 collects a user name, password, email address, name, andother attributes as shown in FIG. 3 , the “user” table. This informationis stored and maintained in the configuration database 550. In thisexample, two users are shown, named John Smith and Michael Smith. Oneskilled in the art would collect this information from the user with asuitable interface, ensure the password follows adequate securityguidelines, and the email address is valid. If one of the users is achild of another user, as could be the case in this example (note thesame last name and large difference in dates of birth), the primary caregiver would set up the user account for the dependent. Note that thepassword field is shown as asterisks. A real password would be stored asa hash so that the password is not known by anybody except the user thatcreated the account. An attempt to recover the password by a user wouldfollow the standard conventions that a new password would need to becreated. In this disclosure, password fields are always shown asasterisks. In the user table in FIG. 3 , the “id” field is a uniqueidentifier for a record. Username is a unique name identifying a user,email is the email address for a user. Other attributes include theusers first name “firstName”, last or surname “lastName”, and date ofbirth “dateOfBirth”. The id field is a unique identifier for the userwhich will be used to relate other information in other tables,including health records, health data providers, and other information.The username and password field are examples of credentials for a user300 to log into the application device 110, and will be verified by thehealth information management system 170, after which the user 300 willbe shown information from the health information management system 170.

To support a caregiver relationship, one user may manage the account ofanother. In that case, a relationship must be established and tracked toenforce this relationship. FIG. 4 , table “accountManager” is configuredto show a relationship that for the user with userId 2, whichcorresponds to the user record for Michael Smith in FIG. 3 user table,the user with userId 1 is an account manager. As user with ID 1 is JohnSmith in FIG. 3 user table, John Smith will be enabled to view all theinformation with the account for Michael Smith. This table is stored andmaintained in the configuration database 550.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, a configuration database 550stores information about one or more health record providers such ashealth record provider A 140 and health record providers B 150, using adatabase table format as shown in FIG. 5 , “provider” table. This tableis managed by configuration database 550. Each record in this tableidentifies a health data provider which the system is capable ofconnecting to, and retrieving health information. The “id” attribute isa unique identifier for the record, the “name” attribute is a readablename representing the data source, for example the name of the practicewith a patient portal that the system will connect to, the interfaceAddress attribute is an address, often a universal resource locator(URL), and the “script” attribute is the name of an executable scriptthat is designed to connect to the data provider system, navigate asneeded, and read or download related health information. In a preferredembodiment of the invention, the script field also enumerates theparameters needed by the script, such as the interfaceAddress, andcredentials (username and password for example) for the user whosehealth information will be retrieved. For example, executing the script“/conf/providers/epf.js” and providing parameters “efp.com/portal”,“jsmith”, and “********” its corresponding password will result in thesedata values being passed at runtime to the script, where the script willlog into a portal at that interface address using the username “j smith”and supplied password, in order to read or download current healthinformation to incorporate into the system. The provider table is storedand maintained in the configuration database 550. This database andtable is configured to be accessible from Health Information Manager 510and User Subscriber Manager 500.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, FIG. 6 shows a databasetable, “fetchJob”, which lists the health data providers to access, andthe credentials (user name and password for example) needed to accesseach health data provider. In the example, the user represented byuserId 1, has two records configured, each to access two differenthealth data providers, including the health data provider withidentifiers 1 and 2, which reference corresponding records in the“provider” table shown in FIG. 5 . Linking the providerId to thecorresponding ID in the provider table, the example indicates that theEverest Family Practice data provider will be accessed with username“jsmith” (first data record, FIG. 6 ), the Peak Orthopedic data providerwill be accessed with username “johnsmith” (second data record, FIG. 6), and the Everest Family Practice data provider will be accessed withusername “michaelsmith” (third data record, FIG. 6 ). The first twohealth data sets will be associated with user with identifier 1 “JohnSmith”, and the third with user with identifier 2 “Michael Smith”. The“fetchJob” table is stored and maintained in the configuration database550.

In one embodiment of the invention, FIG. 7 shows a database table,“record”, which is a highly simplified definition of a health record,describing a condition, problem, procedure, or other aspect which isconsidered “health information”. In the example, two records are shown,both associated with the user with identifier 1 “John Smith” asindicated by the userId field. Each record contains information about ahealth problem, the health data provider from which it came (indicatedby providerId field), a code representing the problem “code”, and thecode system from which the code is defined (“codeType”), a descriptionof the health problem or information item (“problem”), and locationinformation which shows where on a 2 dimensional canonical body map theproblem occurs (mapX, mapY), and a location on the body map view where atextual description is placed (textX, textY). The codeType, code, date,and problem attributes are examples of data retrieved from a health dataprovider A 140 or health data provider B 150. The map location and textlocation information is calculated or derived from the retrieved data.The location information is relative to a coordinate system defined interms of a canonical body map as will be described in a later section.

The “record” table is stored and maintained in the health informationdatabase 560.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, a health information manager510 is a computer with an architecture as shown in FIG. 8 . Such asystem may comprise one or more storage mediums or memory devices,storing computer readable instructions for retrieving health informationfrom one or more health data providers A 140 or health data provider B150.

The various components of the system 600, illustrated in FIG. 8 , mayinclude an assembly of hardware, software, and/or firmware, including amemory device 630, a central processing unit (“CPU”) 610, and/or a userinterface using the input/output unit 620. Memory 630 may include anytype of RAM or ROM embodied in a physical storage medium, such asmagnetic storage including floppy disk, hard disk, or magnetic tape;semiconductor storage such as solid state disk (SSD) or flash memory;optical disc storage; or magneto-optical disc storage. A CPU may includeone or more processors, such as processor 610, for processing dataaccording to a set of programmable instructions 640 or software storedin the memory 630. The functions of each processor 610 may be providedby a single dedicated processor 610 or by a plurality of processors.Moreover, processors may include, without limitation, digital signalprocessor (DSP) hardware, or any other hardware capable of executingsoftware. An optional user interface may include any type or combinationof input/output devices 620, such as a display monitor, keyboard, touchscreen, and/or mouse. Such a computer system 600 is an embodiment of theinvention that supports the processing needs of application device 110and health information management system 170, each having theirrespective instructions 640 to specify the processing as described inlater sections.

In a preferred embodiment of the current invention, the healthinformation manager 510 periodically gathers health information asconfigured in the database tables previously mentioned. On a periodicinterval (e.g. once per day), the health information manager 510examines each user in the user table in the configuration database 550.

For a given user, the health information manager 510 examines allentries in the fetchJob table. In one embodiment, health careinformation manager can be configured to examine a provider tablecorresponding to the fetchJob record, which describes how to gatherhealth information for this user from the indicated health dataprovider. Health information manager 510 can also be configured toestablish a connection to the resource on behalf of the user (e.g. callthe designated script which will automatically log into the portal usingthe stored credentials) and/or follow the defined navigation path,actuating links, buttons and other resources as required and asspecified in the designated script, to ultimately retrieve informationfrom the provider (health record provider A, health record provider B).In one embodiment, health information manager 510 can check if theinformation retrieved is already contained in the Health InformationDatabase 560, and if it is not new, continue to the next item withoutstoring any information. Health information manager 510 can also get thehealth information from the information received. In one embodiment, ifcodes are provided (ICD9, ICD10, SNOMED-CT, etc), then those can beconverted into readable text using common lookup techniques. In oneembodiment, the conversion of codes to readable text occurs at run-time.In another embodiment, the conversion of codes into readable text occursat the time of retrieval of the information. Health information manager510, in one embodiment, can create a record in the “record” table tostore the retrieved health information and/or can also create a “naturalkey” for the information, based on predefined attributes in the item.

In one embodiment, the natural key is stored as an additional column inthe record table. A health record natural key can include a SNOMED-CTcode, code system, date, provider, etc. The natural key is selected toenable de-duplication of this item from the same or other resources. Theuser may later choose to relate items from different resources todesignate them as the same incident, condition, etc. The natural key isused for this purpose. The deduplication method may be extended to takeadvantage of the hierarchy of terms in the code system used, so thatspecific terms are known to be related to ancestors in the termhierarchy, and may therefore refer to the same incident, condition, etc.In one embodiment, the user may also add notes related to this item toprovide his/her personal information related to this incident/condition.The user may designate through manual indication that the record isrelated to an existing record, and that the two should be shown as asingle incident, condition, etc.

Health information manager 510 can also be configured to look up thelocation on the canonical body map for the described item. In oneembodiment, each term in the item description is used to search the bodymap keyword reference data for a body map location. The configurationdatabase can include a table with data similar to that represented inFIG. 12 (which is a sampling of data), whereby a word is searched tofind the location on the canonical body map. Each word in the problemdescription is searched until a match is found. In another embodiment,if an ICD-9 or ICD-10 code is available, it is mapped to a SNOMED-CTcode using common lookup table technologies, then the SNOMED-CT code isexamined to find the corresponding “finding site” attribute, which is abody structure term in the SNOMED-CT data set.

In one embodiment, a lookup table is provided which maps every SNOMED-CTbody structure term to a location on the canonical body map. Thisinformation is stored in a format similar to FIG. 12 wherein a keyindicates a SNOMED-CT body structure and the corresponding valuesidentify a body map and coordinate location on that map. The canonicalbody location is stored along with the record. Thus, a condition isfirst translated to a body structure term, then the body structure termis translated to a coordinate location on the canonical body map. Theuser is later allowed to move this to a different body map point athis/her discretion, useful when the automated means are not accurate orthe user otherwise chooses a different location, in which case the newlocation replaces the old location in the record table.

Health information manager 510 can also, in one embodiment, create alocation for a visual text summary of the item, to be shown along withthe body map. The summary text is shown in a box with color or othervisual indication to designate whether the item represents a newcondition, ongoing condition, or resolved condition. The location of thetext is calculated to be close to the body map location, and notoverlapping with the body map or other text boxes to the extentpossible. A line with similar visual indications is drawn from the textbox to the body map location. In order to handle large amounts ofinformation, filters are provided to allow the user to select categoriesof information (e.g. dermatology, orthopedic, internal, etc). Also, atime filter can be applied to show only a time window of information,for example, conditions with onset dates between ages 45 and 55.

Health information manager 510 can also be configured to storeinformation to health information database 560, associated with thecurrent user, the item with its natural key, both in original item form,and in a derived form where codes and other derived information ispresent (e.g. body map information).

In one embodiment, application device 110 lets the user view the healthinformation for themselves and for their family members, followingpermissions granted in the accountManager table FIG. 4 . When a userviews their information in an application device 110 (web browser ormobile device application), the following processing is performed:

Application device 110 can present the health information on a body map.As described earlier, each information item that is relevant to the bodymap, is shown in a text box with particular color or other visualindication to designate whether the item represents a new condition,ongoing condition, or corrected condition. The location of the text iscalculated to be close to the body map location, and not overlappingwith the body map or other text boxes to the extent possible. A linewith similar visual indications is drawn from the text box to the bodymap location. In order to handle large numbers of information items,filters are provided to allow the user to select categories ofinformation (e.g. dermatology, orthopedic, internal, etc). Also, a timefilter can be applied to show only a time window of information. A usercan scroll through their medical history for their lifetime or thelifetime a patient whose information to which they have been givenaccess.

The user can also specify the items that may be viewed by other usersand specify which items may be shared, outside the system (as whenrecords are sent to a provider before an appointment, or when recordsare sent to a diagnostic system). In one embodiment, the user can createand edit new information records, add notes to existing records, orallow viewing of the items in reverse chronological order viaapplication device 110.

The health information manager 510 provides the ability to render theinformation from health data providers onto various renditions of a bodymap. This enables a user to view health information on a realistic,photographic picture, a wire-frame, or other visual model. Thiscapability aids the patient and caregivers in understanding ofconditions, as the view more concretely corresponds to the real worldsubject. The health information manager 510 relates conditions to bodylocations when appropriate. For example, a mole located 2 centimetersdirectly below the center of the left eye can be plotted on a body mapat a point equivalent to 2 cm below the left eye center, and anappropriate annotation in a text box can be made indicating, forexample, “mole removed by nitrogen freezing”. This aids the patient andcaregivers in recall and understanding of the condition and treatment,especially over time when memory tends to fade.

Health information manager 510, in one embodiment, can define acanonical body map as shown in FIG. 9 . This is a graphic image that isstored in the configuration database and made available to the healthinformation management system 170 and displayed on the applicationdevice 110.

In one embodiment, mapping of conditions occurs on the canonical bodymap. When a textual account of a condition is stored, or a SNOMED-CT orother code is encountered representing a condition, a process is used totranslate the affected body location to a point on the canonical bodymap. In addition, the patient or caregiver may specify explicitly theaffected point on the canonical body map by pointing and clicking usinga pointing device (e.g. mouse or touch-sensitive display). Further, inone embodiment, custom body shapes can be supported using a photographicmorphing method. As an example, an algorithm to translate to custom bodyshapes from the canonical body map comprises

(1) identifying key reference 3-D points on the canonical body map(x,y,z). For example, this can be implemented by defining referencepoints for nose, each eye center, left, right, top, and bottom edges ofmouth, tip of chin, belly button, each shoulder, each elbow, each wrist,each finger tip, low point of groin, outer edge of each hip, knee,ankle, each toe tip, etc. The precision is variable depending on thedesired precision and accuracy of the translation, with more referencepoints producing better conversion precision at the expense of more workand processing cost.

(2) identify corresponding reference points on the custom body shape(a,b,c). Maintain a correspondence between each reference point on thecanonical body map and that of the custom body shape. For example, thetip of the nose may be at location (280,110,30) on the canonical bodymap. On the custom body map, we identify the tip of the nose usingmanual or automated means (image processing which can detect a specificbody point). Assume this point is (1325, 1050, 330). In one embodiment,an association table that relates the point (280,110,30) to point(1325,1050,330) is maintained.

(3) for each point to be plotted onto the custom body shape (forexample, a mole under the left eye as described above), start with thepoint on the canonical body map (x,y,z). Then translate that point ontothe custom body shape (a,b,c). For example, suppose the point that needsto be plotted is exactly on a reference point in the canonical body map.Then, we simply look up the corresponding point in the custom body mapand can plot on that point.

In one embodiment, points on the canonical body map that are close to areference point should be placed close to the corresponding referencepoint in the custom body shape. A vector that represents the distanceand direction from the reference point on the canonical body map iscreated. The vector is scaled as appropriate into a correspondingdistance and direction from the reference point in the custom bodyshape. Scaling is based on the relative size between the canonical bodymap and the custom body shape. The plot point on the custom body shapeis calculated as the corresponding reference point plus the scaledvector. In one embodiment, for points in general (that may or may not beclose to a reference point), the closest reference point is found beforethe algorithm is applied. In another embodiment, since body shapes areirregular, a more accurate placement can be achieved by selectingseveral of the closest reference points, applying the above algorithm tofind multiple candidate points on the custom body map, then calculatingthe average of these points. In one embodiment, any number of customshapes can be defined supporting the broad spectrum of body shapes foundin the general population. Further, in an embodiment, the algorithm tofind the point on the custom body shape is intended as an initialapproximate location. The user or caregiver will be allowed to lateradjust the location to a more precise location visually using a pointingdevice or touch-sensitive display. Furthermore, absolute accuracy isgenerally not needed to communicate a condition to patient or caregiver.

While the process description above references 3-dimensional points, itshould be appreciated that one skilled in the art will understand that2-dimensional points can be processed in a similar manner.

In yet another embodiment, the 3-D model can be expanded to incorporateother dimensions, such as age. Using age as an additional dimension, thebody shape can be shown in sequence through time, thus showing thegrowth of child, or the change in body shape, such as while dieting andlosing significant weight. Thus, a condition as a child, such as brokenleg when 6 years old, is properly adjusted and plotted correctly on anadult image many years later, as the canonical body map location for thebroken leg is properly translated to the correct location based on theadult-sized image. In one embodiment, the processing is restricted to 2dimensions instead of the 3 dimensions as described herein, if a flatsurface map of the body is desired. Yet, in another embodiment, anadditional dimension that selects the body map view (for example: front,left side, back, right side) can be used if flat views are desired. Inthis scenario, a location is constructed as (x,y,v), where ‘v’ is a flatview identifier, for example enumerating one of front, left side, back,right side views.

In one embodiment, custom shapes can also be created, and mapped to thecanonical body map. These custom shapes may include lifelike bodyshapes, three dimensional (3D) drawing of a person, 3D rendering of aperson, whether drawn or derived through automated or semi-automatedmeans, a photograph of a person, a sequence of photographs of a person,3D print of the person, or a combination thereof.

For example, to simulate 3D visualization, a photograph of theindividual from multiple periodic angles can be provided. Thereafter,any key reference photographs onto which the reference points will beplotted can be identified (for example, on the front image and backimage). Then, the application device 110 can show the front or backviews with mapped conditions (after plotting condition locations andtranslating the points onto the photographic image as described above),and can show the photographs in sequence, which then appears to animatethe rotation of the rendition, providing a visualization that appears tobe three dimensional.

In one embodiment, to increase the precision of the body map locationsthat are desired to be plotted, a number of canonical body maps can bedefined—one for each general body shape of various people across thespectrum of age, gender, weight, height, builds, length of arms, lengthof legs, size and shape of head, etc. There after, reference locationsfor each of these can be generated (or derived using the methoddescribed above, in one embodiment). Then an end user can select a bodytype that is similar to the user, to increase the precision of mappingthe body location for a particular condition.

Following this process of mapping conditions to a canonical body map,conditions contain references to locations on this canonical bod map.Using the method described, the canonical body map location can betranslated to alternate renditions of the user, such as a photograph.

FIG. 10 shows a photograph with conditions that have been plotted firston the canonical body map, then transformed to the proper locations inthe image as described above. In a preferred embodiment of theinvention, a user can create reference points for a photograph, and theconditions will be appropriately plotted on the photograph. In anotherembodiment, the condition can be displayed on an image representing thethe user as a child. As the user ages, the image can be updated toreflect growth into later stages of life, such as adolescence oradulthood. With each photograph appropriately configured with referencepoints, the same condition will be appropriately rendered on eachphotograph n the sequence, regardless of the shape or size of the image.In another embodiment of the preferred invention, a sequence of imagesof a user over time can be shown as an animated sequence, whereby theimage is shown to grow frame by frame, and the conditions over timecontinue to be shown and accurately positioned, regardless of the sizeor shape of the image.

The health information manager 510 gathers information from varioushealth data providers. FIG. 11A is one exemplary script which providesexecutable instructions retrieving data from a health data provider. Inthis embodiment, the script runs in the environment CasperJS, asillustrated.

FIG. 11B is a flowchart based on the code illustrated in FIG. 11A.

At 1101, an automated browsing session is created. This is illustratedby the following code described in FIG. 11A:

const url = “portal.mvmg.com/portal/Login.aspx”; var destinationPath =“work/kirstan/landing/”; var casper = require(‘casper’).create({verbose: true, logLevel: ‘info’, pageSettings: { loadImages: false, //The WebPage instance used by Casper will loadPlugins: false, // usethese settings userAgent: ‘Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X10_7_5) AppleWebKit/537.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/22.0.1229.94Safari/537.4’ } }); casper.options.viewportSize = {width: 1600, height:950}; require(“utils”).dump(casper.cli.args);require(“utils”).dump(casper.cli.options);

At 1102, Authentication information of the user is retrieved. This isdescribed by the following code in FIG. 11A:

// Check for command line arguments and exit if not provided.if(!(casper.cli.has(“user”) && casper.cli.has(“pass”))){ console.log(“Please provide appropriate command line arugments! Ex. --user=test@mail.com --pass=qwerty123”);  casper.exit( ); } var username =String(casper.cli.get(“user”)); var password =String(casper.cli.get(“pass”));

At 1103, the patient's portal login page is opened. This is described bythe following code in FIG. 11A:

//1. Open up MVMG Patient Portal Login Screen and fillout logininformation. var url = casper.cli.get(“url”); if (!url) url =“portal.mvmg.com/portal/Login.aspx”; casper.start(url)

At 1104, the username and password are set. This is described by thefollowing code in FIG. 11A:

.thenEvaluate(function(username,password) { document.getElementById(“txtUsername”).value=username; document.getElementById(“txtPassword”).value=password;},username,password);

At 1105, the submit button is actuated from the navigation menu to logthe user in. This is described by the following code in FIG. 11A:

//2. Setfocus casper.then(function( ){ // Set the focus to allowclicking the login button. this.mouse.click(200 , 300); }); //3. Login!casper.then(function( ){ this.evaluate(function( ){ document.getElementById(“btnLogin”).click( ); }); });

At 1106 and 1107, the URL paths are navigated if a link is present. Thisis described by the following code in FIG. 11A:

//4. Go to chart-summary pagecasper.thenOpen(“portal.mvmg.com/portal/chart-summary/default.aspx”,function( ){ });

At 1108, if it is determined that more links/URLs exist, controltransfers back to 1106, as illustrated. This is described by thefollowing code in FIG. 11A:

//5. Render COMPLETE CHART SUMMARY. casper.then(function( ) {this.evaluate(function( ){document.getElementById(“mc_Content_GenericTabs_Gener-icTabs_lbtnCompleteMedicalRecord”).click( ); }); });

If no more URL paths are found, it is presumed the download URL has beenreceived. At 1109, the download button to the health dataset file isactuated. This is described by the following code in FIG. 11A:

// 6. Download Complete Chart Summary // HTTP “GET” REQUEST FORDOWNLOAD: // portal.mvmg.com/portal/chart-summary/handleddownloads/ChartItemDownload/ccddownload/a2f2904b-1f8d-4ece-b44b-dea96682cf68/Chart-Summary.zip casper.then(function( ) { this.evaluate(function( ){document.getElementById(“btnDownload”).click( );  }); });

At 1110, the downloaded data file is stored for further processing. Thisis described by the following code in FIG. 11A:

casper.on(‘resource.received’, function (resource){  “use strict”; if((resource.url.indexOf(“/Chart-Summary.zip”) !== −1)){ var url, file;url = resource.url; file = “Chart-Summary.zip”; try {  var fs =require(‘fs’);  casper.download(resource.url, destinationPath + file); }catch(e) {  this.echo(e);  } }  }); casper.run( ); // invoke the above

In other embodiments, similar scripts are developed using environmentssuch as Selenium, GreaseMonkey, TamperMonkey, and similar tools whichcan automate the navigation through a patient portal or otherinformation source, and download information. In FIG. 11 , the result isdownloading a Continuity of Care document, which is an XML documentfollowing HL7 standards. Once the file is downloaded, it is parsed usingXPath to extract conditions, problems, procedures, etc. (each to be atype of health information item) and each is then translated into arecord, the body map location is calculated as previously described, andthe data is stored in the record table (FIG. 7 ) for later viewing. Inone embodiment of the current invention, the health data providerenables access of health data through a REST interface using the FHIRstandard, and the configuration information indicates which interfacesto call, supplying parameters as appropriate from configuration data,and accepting the received information into the health informationmanager 510, thereafter determining the canonical body map locationusing the previously described method, and storing the combinedinformation in the record table.

FIG. 13 illustrates the operations to perform the tasks to aggregatehealth records about a patient from various sources and then presentingthem in an organized fashion. At 1302, in order to view, and distributepatient health records from multiple sources, a system implementing thetechniques described herein, connects to at least one healthcare dataprovider. At 1304, information related to a user is provided to the atleast one healthcare data provider, the information includingidentification and/or authorization credentials related to the user. Inone embodiment, this is achieved by transmitting an attribute associatedwith a script, where the script is configured to connect to a databaseor service associated with the healthcare data provider to retrieve thehealthcare dataset related to the user. At 1306, a healthcare datasetrelated to the user is retrieved. In one embodiment, the healthcaredataset includes a set of medical information related to the user. Themedical information can include a health condition, procedure,laboratory results, or other data related to the user. In oneembodiment, retrieving the healthcare dataset includes navigatingthrough at least one web page configured in a website of the at leastone healthcare data provider, and optionally can further includeinvoking an appropriate link or command to download a health data setfrom the website. User credentials to log-in to a healthcare provider'ssystems can be preconfigured by a user and stored in configurationdatabase 550.

At 1308, a corresponding location on a canonical body map related toeach medical information in the set of medical information isdetermined. The list of locations is preconfigured to relate eachpossible medical information to a corresponding location on thecanonical body map. At 1310, the corresponding location and eachrespective medical information is determined. At 1312, a view of thebody map to the user is provided, on a graphical user interface. Thismay be the canonical body map itself, or an alternate rendition such asan image of the user. In one embodiment, the canonical body map providesmarkings at each location related to each respective medical informationbased on the associating. At 1314, medical information is plotted at thelocation on the body map. If an alternate rendition is used, thelocation is first converted from the CBM location to the similarlocation on the alternate rendition. At 1316, display the medicalinformation to the user, with a visual line or pointer to the bodylocation, visually indicating the medical information is related to themarked location on the body map. Further, in one embodiment, an image ofthe user's body is presented, and the calculated location on thecanonical body map is transformed and shown on the image. In anotherembodiment, the set of medical information displayed at any one time isdetermined by filters set by the user, enabling viewing of informationrelative to a particular medical category (such as dermatology,orthopedics, etc), or within a specified time range.

FIG. 14 illustrates a system 1400 configured to aggregate and viewhealth records received from multiple sources, in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention. In some embodiments, system 1400 caninclude one or more servers 1402. Server(s) 1402 can be configured tocommunicate with one or more client computing platforms 1404 accordingto a client/server architecture and/or other architectures. Clientcomputing platform(s) 1404 can be configured to communicate with otherclient computing platforms via server(s) 1402 and/or according to apeer-to-peer architecture and/or other architectures. Users can accesssystem 1400 via client computing platform(s) 1404.

Server(s) 1402 can be configured by machine-readable instructions 1406.Machine-readable instructions 1406 can include one or more instructionmodules. The instruction modules can include computer program modules.The instruction modules can include one or more of a User SubscriptionManager Module 1408, a Database Configuration Module 1410, and a HealthInformation Manager Module 1412, and/or other instruction modules.

In one embodiment, User Subscription Manager Module 1408 can beconfigured to subscribe a user to the services for the healthinformation management system 170, as described herein illustrating FIG.2 . Module 1408 can be configured to connect to at least one healthcaredata provider. Information related to a user can be provided to thehealthcare data provider, the information including identificationand/or authorization credentials related to the user. Module 1408 can beconfigured to retrieve user information from configuration database 550.In one embodiment, this can achieved by transmitting an attributeassociated with a script, where the script is configured to connect to adatabase or service associated with the healthcare data provider,transmit data provided in configuration database 550.

Database Configuration Module 1410 can be configured to provide aninterface between module 1408 and system 170, providing instructions tostore and retrieve information stored and stored and maintained in theconfiguration database 550.

Health Information Manager Module 1412 can be configured to retrieve ahealthcare dataset related to the user. In one embodiment, thehealthcare dataset includes a set of medical information related to theuser. The medical information can include a health condition, procedure,laboratory results, or other data related to the user. In oneembodiment, retrieving the healthcare dataset includes navigatingthrough at least one web page configured in a website of the at leastone healthcare data provider, and optionally can further includeinvoking an appropriate link or command to download a health data setfrom the website. Module 1410 can be configured to determine acorresponding location on a canonical body map related to each medicalinformation in the set of medical information is determined. The list oflocations can be preconfigured to correspond to each location on thecanonical body map. Module 1401 can also be configured to, in oneembodiment, to generate a view of the canonical body map to the user viaa graphical user interface. In one embodiment, the canonical body mapprovides markings at each location related to each respective medicalinformation based on the associating. Medical information related to amarking is displayed on the canonical body map through the graphicaluser interface. Further, in one embodiment, an alternate rendition, suchas a photographic image of the user can be displayed, and the locationspecified in terms of the canonical body map is translated to thecorresponding point on the alternative rendition.

In some embodiments, server(s) 1402, client computing platform(s) 1404,and/or external resources 1414 can be operatively linked via one or moreelectronic communication links. For example, such electroniccommunication links can be established, at least in part, via a networksuch as the Internet and/or other networks. It will be appreciated thatthis is not intended to be limiting, and that the scope of thisdisclosure includes embodiments in which server(s) 1402, clientcomputing platform(s) 1404, and/or external resources 1414 can beoperatively linked via some other communication media.

A given client computing platform 1404 can include one or moreprocessors configured to execute computer program modules. The computerprogram modules can be configured to enable an expert or user associatedwith the given client computing platform 1404 to interface with system1400 and/or external resources 1414, and/or provide other functionalityattributed herein to client computing platform(s) 1404. By way ofnon-limiting example, the given client computing platform 1404 caninclude one or more of a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a handheldcomputer, a tablet computing platform, a NetBook, a Smartphone, a gamingconsole, and/or other computing platforms. External resources 1414 caninclude sources of information outside of system 1400, external entitiesparticipating with system 1400, and/or other resources. In someembodiments, some or all of the functionality attributed herein toexternal resources 1414 can be provided by resources included in system1400.

Server(s) 1402 can include electronic storage 1416, one or moreprocessors 1418, and/or other components. Server(s) 1402 can includecommunication lines, or ports to enable the exchange of information witha network and/or other computing platforms. Illustration of server(s)1402 in FIG. 14 is not intended to be limiting. Server(s) 1402 caninclude a plurality of hardware, software, and/or firmware componentsoperating together to provide the functionality attributed herein toserver(s) 1402. For example, server(s) 1402 can be implemented by acloud of computing platforms operating together as server(s) 1402.

Electronic storage 1416 can comprise non-transitory storage media thatelectronically stores information. The electronic storage media ofelectronic storage 1416 can include one or both of system storage thatis provided integrally (i.e., substantially non-removable) withserver(s) 1402 and/or removable storage that is removably connectable toserver(s) 1402 via, for example, a port (e.g., a USB port, a firewireport, etc.) or a drive (e.g., a disk drive, etc.). Electronic storage1416 can include one or more of optically readable storage media (e.g.,optical disks, etc.), magnetically readable storage media (e.g.,magnetic tape, magnetic hard drive, floppy drive, etc.), electricalcharge-based storage media (e.g., EEPROM, RAM, etc.), solid-statestorage media (e.g., flash drive, etc.), and/or other electronicallyreadable storage media. Electronic storage 1416 can include one or morevirtual storage resources (e.g., cloud storage, a virtual privatenetwork, and/or other virtual storage resources). Electronic storage1416 can store software algorithms, information determined byprocessor(s) 1418, information received from server(s) 1402, informationreceived from client computing platform(s) 1404, and/or otherinformation that enables server(s) 1402 to function as described herein.

Processor(s) 1418 can be configured to provide information processingcapabilities in server(s) 1402. As such, processor(s) 1418 can includeone or more of a digital processor, an analog processor, a digitalcircuit designed to process information, an analog circuit designed toprocess information, a state machine, and/or other mechanisms forelectronically processing information. Although processor(s) 1418 isshown in FIG. 14 as a single entity, this is for illustrative purposesonly. In some embodiments, processor(s) 1418 can include a plurality ofprocessing units. These processing units can be physically locatedwithin the same device, or processor(s) 1418 can represent processingfunctionality of a plurality of devices operating in coordination.Processor(s) 1418 can be configured to execute modules 1408, 1410, 1412,and/or other modules.

Processor(s) 1418 can be configured to execute modules 1408, 1410, 1412,and/or other modules by software; hardware; firmware; some combinationof software, hardware, and/or firmware; and/or other mechanisms forconfiguring processing capabilities on processor(s) 1418. As usedherein, the term “module” can refer to any component or set ofcomponents that perform the functionality attributed to the module. Thiscan include one or more physical processors during execution ofprocessor readable instructions, the processor readable instructions,circuitry, hardware, storage media, or any other components.

It should be appreciated that although modules 1408, 1410, and/or 1412are illustrated in FIG. 14 as being implemented within a singleprocessing unit, in embodiments in which processor(s) 1418 includesmultiple processing units, one or more of modules 1408, 1410, and/or1412 can be implemented remotely from the other modules. The descriptionof the functionality provided by the different modules 1408, 1410,and/or 1412 described below is for illustrative purposes, and is notintended to be limiting, as any of modules 1408, 1410, and/or 1412, canprovide more or less functionality than is described. For example, oneor more of modules 1408, 1410, and/or 1412 can be eliminated, and someor all of its functionality can be provided by other ones of modules1408, 1410, and/or 1412. As another example, processor(s) 1418 can beconfigured to execute one or more additional modules that can performsome or all of the functionality attributed below to one of modules1408, 1410, and/or 1412.

A system of one or more computers can be configured to performparticular operations or actions by virtue of having software, firmware,hardware, or a combination of them installed on the system that inoperation causes or cause the system to perform the actions. One or morecomputer programs can be configured to perform particular operations oractions by virtue of including instructions that, when executed by dataprocessing apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform the actions.

Other features can also be incorporated:

In one embodiment, the information source (for a patient's health dataset) is a computer server with an application programming interface(API) allowing similar activities for authentication, informationrequest, and health information retrieval, as described above. The APIinterface can be implemented in a programming or scripting languagewhich invokes the API in sequence to retrieve the health recordinformation for processing. In one embodiment, an API standard calledFast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (“FHIR”) is used by the EHRsystem to enable a process like the one described above to authenticateand retrieve health information for a patient or user.

In one or more preferred embodiments, the information retrieval processresults in downloading a file following a standard called “ConsolidatedClinical Document Architecture” (“C-CDA”), which is an XML documentfollowing HL7 standards. In one embodiment, health information isretrieved and ingested into the Health Information database on aperiodic basis. The system examines each user in the user table. For agiven user, the system examines all entries in the fetchJob table, asillustrated in FIG. 6 , and for each record performs the following:

(a) Examine the Information Source Table, FIG. 5 , corresponding to thefetchJob record, which describes how to gather health information forthis user from the indicated health information provider. (b) Asspecified in the Information Source Table (FIG. 5 ), establish aconnection to the resource on behalf of the user. (c) Follow the definednavigation path, actuating links, buttons and other resources asrequired and as specified in the designated script or stored navigationpath list determined by the Information Source Table, to finally arriveat a link or button that retrieves information from the provider. Invokethis link to download or retrieve the health data.

Thereafter, (d) For each item of information retrieved, perform thefollowing:

(i) Check if the item is already contained in the Health InformationDatabase using a deduplication method where attributes in the retrieveddata are compared to attributes in the stored data; (ii) Get the healthinformation from the item, which may include a textual descriptionand/or a code; (iii) Create a record in the “record” table to store theretrieved health information; and (iv) Create a location for a visualtext summary of the item, to be shown along with the body map.

In one embodiment, the deduplication method may be extended to takeadvantage of the hierarchy of terms in the code system used, so thatspecific terms are known to be related to ancestors in the termhierarchy, and may therefore refer to the same incident, condition, etc.If the record is not new, continue to the next item without storing anyinformation.

Furthermore, if an ICD-9 or ICD-10 code is available, in one embodiment,it can be translated it to a SNOMED-CT code as described herein. In oneembodiment, the SNOMED-CT code (whether translated, or provideddirectly) is examined to find the corresponding “finding site” attributein the SNOMED-CT data set. The finding site is a reference to a bodystructure in the SNOMED-CT body structure hierarchy. A reference dataset similar to FIG. 12 , where the “key” is the SNOMED-CT body structureidentifier, is then used to find the location on the canonical body map.The reference data includes a canonical body map location for everySNOMED-CT body structure.

In another embodiment, each word in the item description is used tosearch the body map keyword reference data for a body map location (seeFIG. 12 for example reference data). A word is searched to find thelocation on the canonical body map. Each word in the problem descriptionin the health record can be searched until a match is found. Thecoordinate associated with the word is used at the location.

In one embodiment, the visual text summary of the item is shown in a boxwith color or other visual indication to designate whether the itemrepresents a new condition, ongoing condition, or resolved condition.The location of the text is calculated to be close to the body maplocation, and not overlapping with the body map other text boxes to theextent possible. A line with similar visual indications is drawn fromthe text box to the body map location. In order to handle large amountsof information, filters are provided to allow the user to selectcategories of information (e.g. dermatology, orthopedic, internal, etc).Also, a time filter is included to allow the user to view medicalinformation during a time window (for example over the last 3 years).

In one embodiment, creating a visual rendition is performed as follows:

(a) User selects a particular view which identifies the desired map torender; (b) For each record in the record table with a plot location onthe selected map:

(i) Get the point from the record. This is stated in relation to thecanonical body map;

(ii) Translate the point onto the custom rendition using the pointtranslation process as described herein; (iii) Place a visual indicatorat the translated point on the rendition. This will be on the sameapproximate location as on the canonical body map (e.g. a point one inchabove and to the right of the navel on the canonical body map willappear one inch above and to the right of the navel on the customrendition); (iv) Place a visual rectangle on the rendition, with textualdescription as included with the health information (e.g. condition,procedure, treatment, date, etc); and (v) optionally connect the visualrectangle to the location point with a line, thus clearly indicating theinformation is related to the marked location on the body map.

In one embodiment, data from the user to identify a body point orregion, with pertinent data (such as condition, procedure, journalentry, or pain level) is collected. This is implemented by allowing theuser to originate a new data entry (condition, procedure, journal entry)affecting a specific location on the body. The user clicks on the bodylocation, and is then prompted for data entry information. The selectedbody location is translated to the canonical body map prior to furtherstorage and/or processing, and later rendering.

In yet another embodiment, pain level information during the managementof a disease or recovery from an injury is gathered. The patient canpoint to a location on the body, and upon prompting, can supply a painlevel (for example, a level from a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the mostpainful). For example, a Rheumatologist treating a patient may beadjusting prescription types and levels. Pain locations and levelsrecorded by the patient can inform the Rheumatologist of the success ofa treatment plan, and provide guidance for adjustments, if necessary.FIG. 15 indicates how one or more polygon regions are defined, allowingthe user to select a region and then supply pertinent information suchas a pain level.

The creation of different regions can be accomplished by mapping anelement with polygon area definitions that are selectable by the user.Any polygon can be defined as a region.

The points defining the polygon can then be translated into locations onthe canonical body map using the techniques described herein. Thus, inone embodiment, body regions of interest can be defined in a canonicalbody map, then translated to custom renditions where they can be usedfor user selection and input. The wrist region in FIG. 15 is thustranslated to the wrist region in FIG. 16 . The patient is able to viewa realistic rendition of themselves during pain level entry, providingbetter familiarity, which leads to better accuracy in many cases.

In another embodiment, instead of translating the points of a polygon soas to be displayed on a custom rendition, a specific data point can beidentified on the custom rendition. This point can be translated to thecanonical body map as described herein. Thus, input collected from userswith different custom renditions, can be normalized to a common model,in terms of the canonical body map.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating a data processing system such asa computing system 1700 which may be used with one embodiment of theinvention. For example, system 1700 can be implemented for any computingsystem described herein. It should be apparent from this descriptionthat aspects of the present invention can be embodied, at least in part,in software. That is, the techniques may be carried out in a computersystem or other computer system in response to its processor, such as amicroprocessor, executing sequences of instructions contained in memory,such as a ROM, DRAM, mass storage, or a remote storage device. Invarious embodiments, hardware circuitry may be used in combination withsoftware instructions to implement the present invention. Thus, thetechniques are not limited to any specific combination of hardwarecircuitry and software nor to any particular source for the instructionsexecuted by the computer system. In addition, throughout thisdescription, various functions and operations are described as beingperformed by or caused by software code to simplify description.However, those skilled in the art will recognize what is meant by suchexpressions is that the functions result from execution of the code by aprocessor.

In one embodiment, system 1700 can represent health information manager550. System 1700 can have a distributed architecture having a pluralityof nodes coupled through a network, or all of its components may beintegrated into a single unit. Computing system 1700 can represent anyof the data processing systems described above performing any of theprocesses or methods described above. In one embodiment, computer system1700 can be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs), discreteelectronic devices, modules adapted to a circuit board such as amotherboard, an add-in card of the computer system, and/or as componentsthat can be incorporated within a chassis/case of any computing device.System 1700 is intended to show a high level view of many components ofany data processing unit or computer system. However, it is to beunderstood that additional or fewer components may be present in certainimplementations and furthermore, different arrangement of the componentsshown may occur in other implementations. System 1700 can represent adesktop, a laptop, a tablet, a server, a mobile phone, a programmablelogic controller, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a personalcommunicator, a network router or hub, a wireless access point (AP) orrepeater, a set-top box, or a combination thereof.

In one embodiment, system 1700 includes processor 1701, memory 1703, anddevices 1705-1708 via a bus or an interconnect 1722. Processor 1701 canrepresent a single processor or multiple processors with a singleprocessor core or multiple processor cores included therein. Processor1701 can represent one or more general-purpose processors such as amicroprocessor, a central processing unit (CPU), Micro Controller Unit(MCU), etc. Processor 1701 can be a complex instruction set computing(CISC) microprocessor, reduced instruction set computing (RISC)microprocessor, very long instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor, orprocessor implementing other instruction sets, or processorsimplementing a combination of instruction sets. Processor 1701 may alsobe one or more special-purpose processors such as an applicationspecific integrated circuit (ASIC), a cellular or baseband processor, afield programmable gate array (FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP),a network processor, a graphics processor, a network processor, acommunications processor, a cryptographic processor, a co-processor, anembedded processor, or any other type of logic capable of processinginstructions. Processor 1701, can also be a low power multi-coreprocessor socket such as an ultra low voltage processor, may act as amain processing unit and central hub for communication with the variouscomponents of the system. Such processor can be implemented as a systemon chip (SoC).

Processor 1701 is configured to execute instructions for performing theoperations and methods discussed herein. System 1700 further includes agraphics interface that communicates with graphics subsystem 1704, whichmay include a display controller and/or a display device. Processor 1701can communicate with memory 1703, which in an embodiment can beimplemented via multiple memory devices to provide for a given amount ofsystem memory. In various implementations the individual memory devicescan be of different package types such as single die package (SDP), dualdie package (DDP) or quad die package (QDP). These devices can in someembodiments be directly soldered onto a motherboard to provide a lowerprofile solution, while in other embodiments the devices can beconfigured as one or more memory modules that in turn can couple to themotherboard by a given connector. Memory 1703 can be a machine readablenon-transitory storage medium such as one or more volatile storage (ormemory) devices such as random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM),synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), static RAM (SRAM), or other types of storagedevices such as hard drives and flash memory. Memory 1703 may storeinformation including sequences of executable program instructions thatare executed by processor 1701, or any other device. System 1700 canfurther include IO devices such as devices 1705-1708, including wirelesstransceiver(s) 1705, input device(s) 1706, audio IO device(s) 1707, andother IO devices 1708.

Wireless transceiver 1705 can be a WiFi transceiver, an infraredtransceiver, a Bluetooth transceiver, a WiMax transceiver, a wirelesscellular telephony transceiver, a satellite transceiver (e.g., a globalpositioning system (GPS) transceiver), or other radio frequency (RF)transceivers, network interfaces (e.g., Ethernet interfaces) or acombination thereof. Input device(s) 1706 can include a mouse, a touchpad, a touch sensitive screen (which may be integrated with displaydevice 1704), a pointer device such as a stylus, and/or a keyboard(e.g., physical keyboard or a virtual keyboard displayed as part of atouch sensitive screen). Other optional devices 1708 can include astorage device (e.g., a hard drive, a flash memory device), universalserial bus (USB) port(s), parallel port(s), serial port(s), a printer, anetwork interface, a bus bridge (e.g., a PCI-PCI bridge), sensor(s)(e.g., a motion sensor such as an accelerometer, gyroscope, amagnetometer, a light sensor, compass, a proximity sensor, etc.), or acombination thereof. Optional devices 1708 can further include animaging processing subsystem (e.g., a camera), which may include anoptical sensor, such as a charged coupled device (CCD) or acomplementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) optical sensor, utilizedto facilitate camera functions, such as recording photographs and videoclips. Certain sensors can be coupled to interconnect 1722 via a sensorhub (not shown), while other devices such as a keyboard or thermalsensor may be controlled by an embedded controller (not shown),dependent upon the specific configuration or design of system 1700.

To provide for persistent storage of information such as data,applications, one or more operating systems and so forth, in oneembodiment, a mass storage (not shown) may also couple to processor1701. In various embodiments, to enable a thinner and lighter systemdesign as well as to improve system responsiveness, this mass storagemay be implemented via a solid state device (SSD). However in otherembodiments, the mass storage may primarily be implemented using a harddisk drive (HDD) with a smaller amount of SSD storage to act as a SSDcache to enable non-volatile storage of context state and other suchinformation during power down events so that a fast power up can occuron RE-initiation of system activities. Also a flash device may becoupled to processor 1701, e.g., via a serial peripheral interface(SPI). This flash device may provide for non-volatile storage of systemsoftware, including a basic input/output software (BIOS) as well asother firmware of the system.

Note that while system 1700 is illustrated with various components of adata processing system, it is not intended to represent any particulararchitecture or manner of interconnecting the components; as suchdetails are not germane to embodiments of the present invention. It willalso be appreciated that network computers, handheld computers, mobilephones, and other data processing systems which have fewer components orperhaps more components may also be used with embodiments of theinvention.

While the above detailed description has shown, described, and pointedout the fundamental novel features of the disclosure as applied tovarious implementations, it will be understood that various omissionsand substitutions and changes in the form and details of the systemillustrated may be made by those skilled in the art, without departingfrom the intent of the disclosure. Although the present invention hasbeen described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments, it willbe evident that various modifications and changes may be made to theseembodiments without departing from the broader spirit and scope of theinvention as set forth in the claims. Accordingly, the specification anddrawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictivesense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: instantiating, by acomputer system, a web browser object in memory, wherein the web browserobject includes information related to a user; connecting, by thecomputer system, using the web browser object in memory, to a server ofat least one healthcare data provider; providing, by the computersystem, using the web browser object in memory, the information relatedto a user to the at least one healthcare data provider; receiving, bythe computer system, using the web browser object in memory, ExtensibleMarkup Language (XML) based retrieving a healthcare dataset related tothe user; parsing, by the computer system, the XML based healthcaredataset using XML Path Language (XPath) to query XML nodes of thehealthcare dataset to extract at least one health data item related tothe user; determining, by the computer system, a corresponding locationon a canonical body map related to the at least one health data item;associating, by the computer system, the corresponding location with theat least one health data item; providing, by the computer system, a viewof the canonical body map to the user wherein the canonical body mapprovides a marking associating the at least one health data item; anddisplaying, by the computer system, information related to the at leastone health data item, when the user interacts with the canonical bodymap through a graphical user interface coupled to the computer system.2. The method of claim 1, wherein the canonical body map can be replacedwith an alternate rendition, the alternate rendition including an imageof a body of the user.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein providing theinformation related of the user to the at least one healthcare dataprovider includes transmitting an attribute associated with a script,wherein the script is configured to connect to a database associatedwith the healthcare data provider to retrieve the healthcare datasetrelated to the user.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the correspondinglocation on the canonical body map associated with the at least onehealth data item is preconfigured.
 5. The method of claim 1, whereinretrieving the healthcare dataset includes navigating through at leastone web page configured in a website of the at least one healthcare dataprovider.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein retrieving the healthcaredataset includes invoking an appropriate link or command to download ahealth data set from the website.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein theat least one health data item includes data related to a healthcondition, procedure, or laboratory results related to the user.
 8. Anon-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions whichwhen executed by a processing system performs a method, comprising:instantiating a web browser object in memory, wherein the web browserobject includes information related to a user; connecting, using the webbrowser object in memory, to a server of at least one healthcare dataprovider; providing, using the web browser object in memory, theinformation related to a user to the at least one healthcare dataprovider; receiving Extensible Markup Language (XML) based a healthcaredataset related to the user; parsing the XML based healthcare datasetusing XML Path Language (XPath) to query XML nodes of the healthcaredataset to extract at least one health data item related to the user;determining a corresponding location on a canonical body map related tothe at least one health data item; associating the correspondinglocation with the at least one health data item; providing a view of thecanonical body map to the user, on a graphical user interface, whereinthe canonical body map provides a marking associating the at least onehealth data item; and displaying information related to the at least onehealth data item, when the user interacts with the canonical body mapthrough a graphical user interface.
 9. The non-transitory computerreadable medium of claim 8 wherein the canonical body map can bereplaced with an alternate rendition, the alternate rendition includingan image of a body of the user.
 10. The non-transitory computer readablemedium of claim 8, wherein providing the information related of the userto the at least one healthcare data provider includes transmitting anattribute associated with a script, wherein the script is configured toconnect to a database associated with the healthcare data provider toretrieve the healthcare dataset related to the user.
 11. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein thecorresponding location on the canonical body map associated with the atleast one health data item is preconfigured.
 12. The non-transitorycomputer readable medium of claim 8, wherein retrieving the healthcaredataset includes navigating through at least one web page configured ina website of the at least one healthcare data provider.
 13. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein retrievingthe healthcare dataset includes invoking an appropriate link or commandto download a health data set from the website.
 14. The non-transitorycomputer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the at least one healthdata item includes data related to a health condition, procedure, orlaboratory results related to the user.
 15. A system comprising: amemory module; a processing system comprising at least one hardware corecoupled to the memory module configured to: instantiate a web browserobject in the memory module, wherein the web browser object includesinformation related to a user; connect, using the web browser object inthe memory module, to a server of at least one healthcare data provider;provide, using the web browser object in the memory module, theinformation related to a user to the at least one healthcare dataprovider; receive, using the web browser object in the memory module,Extensible Markup Language (XML) based retrieving a healthcare datasetrelated to the user; parse the XML based healthcare dataset using XMLPath Language (XPath) to query XML nodes of the healthcare dataset toextract at least one health data item related to the user; determine acorresponding location on a canonical body map related to the at leastone health data item; associate the corresponding location with the atleast one health data item; provide a view of the canonical body map tothe user, wherein the canonical body map provides a marking associatingthe at least one health data item; and display information related tothe at least one health data item, when the user interacts with thecanonical body map through a graphical user interface.
 16. The system ofclaim 15, wherein the canonical body map can be replaced with analternate rendition, the alternate rendition including an image of abody of the user.
 17. The system of claim 15, wherein to provide theinformation related of the user to the at least one healthcare dataprovider includes transmitting an attribute associated with a script,wherein the script is configured to connect to a database associatedwith the healthcare data provider to retrieve the healthcare datasetrelated to the user.
 18. The system of claim 15, wherein thecorresponding location on the canonical body map associated with the atleast one health data item is preconfigured.
 19. The system of claim 15,wherein to retrieve the healthcare dataset includes navigating throughat least one web page configured in a website of the at least onehealthcare data provider.
 20. The system of claim 15, wherein toretrieve the healthcare dataset includes invoking an appropriate link orcommand to download a health data set from the website, and wherein theat least one health data item includes data related to a healthcondition, procedure, or laboratory results related to the user.